Biological samples, such as blood samples taken for drug discovery and saliva taken for DNA profiling in criminal investigations, are typically held in an absorbent storage medium, which may comprise a membrane impregnated with chemicals for stabilising the sample. The samples are allowed to dry and, once dry, the biological storage medium can be transported to a testing facility for analysis.
Typically, when testing the sample, small pieces of the sample holding membrane are punched out. These pieces are small enough to minimise wasteful consumption of the sample but large enough to be handled and also to contain enough biological material for the test to be carried out successfully. The membrane may be made from a variety of materials, such as paper, glass fiber, polyester, polyether sulfone (PES), polyamide (Nylon), polypropylene, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polycarbonate, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate and aluminium oxide.
Conventionally, this processing is done manually and samples are tested individually. However, greater demand for storage and extraction of genetic material has led to a requirement for greater throughput; the standard is now hundreds or thousands of extractions per day. Currently, matrix-based solutions for storage of biological samples such as nucleic acid are limited in this respect because automated or multiple-sample processing of the samples is not compatible with the storage medium.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate the limitations associated with storing biological samples such as nucleic acids and proteins in matrices and provide a way to increase the speed and efficiency of sample processing.